PlantFiles: Tomato
Lycopersicon lycopersicum 'Stupice'

Introduced by Abundant Life in 1977. Weighs 8-to-the-pound; good size for canning whole. Of 9 varieties I grew in 2007, Stupice had the weakest seedlings both inside after germination and outside after transplant. Required a lot of babying. Yield was on par with Rutgers. Long yield period (5 weeks as opposed to 3 for most varieties).

A reliable, productive, early tomato whose medium small size is about right for lunching. It's taste is ok but not great, and often has yellowish or green shoulders but I'll probably continue to grow it.

Very tasty, smaller than I thought, so I think I'll use this as my salad tomato next year and grow a bigger one for sandwiches. Does very well in a huge tub, 2 plants with 1 basil and 1 marigold per tub.

I grew this variety because of many positive reviews I've read on DG. I am finding the 'early and prolific' part to be quite true. However, except for a few here and there, most fruits are only slightly bigger than a golf ball, which is smaller than I'd expected. Also, as far as taste I would rate these as mediocre. Just my opinion, but overall I'm a bit disappointed.
I grew First Lady (hyrbrid) last year and if I had to choose between that and Stupice for an early I would choose First Lady (better taste, larger size, just as early and prolific).

Very early with good heat tolerance. Good flavor that becomes exceptional when cooked or dried. (Hot Stupice juice is to die for, trust me.) It's fresh flavor isn't Brandywine by a long shot, but it's better than store-bought. Extremely prolific.

Grown stupice in San Francisco's banana belt for the past 7 years and results have been tremendous.

I prune buds so that the only largest two flowers are left to fruit up and all the plant's energies go into making the largest fruits. The largest one tends to have the heirloom qualities to it, all pleated and funny shaped.

Here in SF it gets pretty cold at night and skins get tough, so it makes sense to me to avoid multiple small fruits which have a high skin to flesh ratio in favor of a few larger fruits.

Also, the plant has a branching habit which I tend to nip in the bud, resulting in plants that can get up to 15' tall towards the end of the summer. Every time a bud branch comes, the plant wants to send up another growing head in that notch, and I always clip that.

I've had mixed results growing from seed, mostly due to my lack of attention and follow through. One year I got some great starts including the famed "satan tomato," the next year the crop failed and I had to order starts.

Planted my six starts in the last week of March 2009, and due to a hot spell last month, the first buds fruited up and are most all the way to ripe. The plants are about 50" tall, just put up the PVC pipe supports and bound them today.

The only botanical problem I've had with them has been that they are so bushy that they get powdery mildew. Rats have also discovered them, and they generally do enough damage prior to ripening and kill the fruit.

I generally dry farm them after May, only feeding them when they wilt.

Stupice is a mainstay in my garden - every year I have at least one (if not two or three) growing. Excellent for shorter seasons, and it has a fantastic flavour. My tomatoes always get to be about tennis ball (to a little bigger) sized, about 2" in diameter. We have hot, hot hot spells here in the Kootenays and this tomato still keeps going strong. I've never had a problem with disease or pests in all my years of growing either. Very early, prolific producer, and keeps going right up until frost.

I have grown Stupice for 7 years in west Marin County and now for 9 years in Berkeley. I would especially recommend it for cooler regions like this. It is very early, productive, not subject to disease, and tasty. I would not recommend it for warm regions like the south or the mid-west.
Some years ago I won the bay area contest for the earliest tomato grown from seed with Stupice.

These did not live up to the hype for me personally. They were indeed early, but flavor early in the season was not great at all. Very bland and horrible texture. They are tiny - barely larger than a cherry tomato. Big seeds and lots of juice, no meat. Later in the season they seemed to transform - flavor improved markedly, gaining a complex warmth that I did enjoy. (Texture and size remained the same, however.) I don't think I would grow this again - the point of it for me was to have decent tasting early tomatoes, and this didn't do it. There are many more better tasting mid and late season varieties to grow for later production.

We absolutely love this tomato in our difficult climate! It is superior to Early Girl in flavor and speed both, which is what I wanted to find. I grow it in a large hoop house directly in the ground, fully mulched with grass clippings so the environment is a bit odd, not a normal greenhouse. Stupice does great until fall when it gets a bit too cool and damp with the poor air circulation in there.

I love it, love it, love it! I love the flavor of Stupice. They are so very tasty. And they are early and very productive to boot! I am very pleased with this cultivar.

It does get some green shoulders and it seems to not like too much heat though. They are small - golf ball size - but I like the size too. Easy to bring to work for lunch and eat them like you would eat plums or peaches or something.

It is definitely a keeper for me.

tmm

This is our first year with this plant. After a long winter with no fresh tomatoes, we were blown away by our initial tasting. Great balanced flavor and nice golf ball size fruit that haven't stopped bearing. The only strange note here is the later fruit are taking on a boxier, angular shape. I don't know why.. Will grow again.

The plant grew rapidly, bore excellent-flavored tomatoes early and prolifically. Very pleased!

Sorry to file a minority report here, but I've tried twice from two different seed companies and I still cannot get "Stupice" to take off and thrive. It barely germinates. (Yes, I know, it must be my fault and this variety is supposed to be fantastically hardy but I've started and grown at least a dozen other varieities quite successfully under exactly the same conditions, so what gives?) I may give it another try some day but at this point my feeling is there are so many great tomatoes and only so much space in the garden. Much prefer my big Prudens, Brandywines, and Amana Oranges to whatever this Stupice is supposed to yield. Hats off to those of you who have grown it so successfully.

I am in Maryland on the border with Washington, D.C. I'm adventuring to grow a stupice plant in my high-rise apt 10th-story window which faces mostly South, a little East. A very hot, sunny window. This plant was sold to me as the "best chance" to thrive on a window sill because of its being a "dwarf." So far it is 3-1/2 feet tall! I see from this website that it may grow 7 feet! (I got this idea from seeing a happy tomato plant in an office building upper-story window.) The window is six feet long and I extended a platform on the sill to hold the appropriately large pot.

I have tiny little green tomato orbs growing fast and lots more blooms coming at the top. (Sorry, I'm a new gardener, don't know the proper name for the little yellow flowers where the tomatoes start.)

I have a decision to make now because the "dwarf" plant has gotten taller than I expected. It's reached above the top of the window glass. Do I move it lower, which will mean off the sill, which means it will be further back from the sunlight but be able to grow straight up and receive sun on the top leaves, though less intense, or do I provide a structure for it to vine sideways on while staying right up by the glass and receiving the most sun?! I don't know if it will vine sideways on a structure to get the sun. Any suggestions? I'm surprised it's not going sideways on its own to get the light, since it's now 2 inches above (higher than) the window glass and will probably be 3 inches above when I come home tomorrow! I'm already in love with this sole vegetable plant in my apartment.

Thanks for any comment.

This is the earliest tomato I get here in Los Alamos, NM, other than the cherry tomatoes. It is also a favorite. The fruit is small but delicious and it is very productive until the end of the summer. When my larger, later tomatoes begin to bear, Stupice often seems to get some sort of virus or wilt and to start looking sickly and to produce tomatoes that taste "off". Still, it is worth planting just for the big crop of tomatoes when nothing else is bearing.

Manageable sized plants for 7-10 gal containers and a cheapie cage. Sets very well in the heat, also does well as a fall crop with the shorter day length. Very early variety.

Delicious early tomato! Small, attractive fruit, flavor is mild - other early tomatos have better flavor - but this is the sweetest, some say too sweet. It wasn't the earliest, but reasonable. And this one keeps pumping out tomatoes into the fall. Amazing quartered in pasta or greek salad.

VERY EARLY producer of sm. to med. sized fruits, very productive, variously shaped fruits but consistently tasty!
Not bothered by a few 38 degree nites.

first time growing them. small in size but big on taste. i will grow them again.

Fabulous early variety! This was my first year using Wall-O-Waters. I planted out 'Stupice' and 'Oregon Spring' on April 6. Harvested my first ripe 'Stupice' on June 20!! 'Oregon Spring' didn't start until mid July.

The flavor is complex & nicely balanced, reminded me of a pink beefsteak (which I love). Oddly, the shape of this tomato varies quite a bit, although the size is generally small. I will definitely grow this one again!

I love these little guys! They are very tolerant of my less than perfect indoor starting conditions. As soon as I get my little runts into the ground, they take off. I have to tie them up twice in the first week. They are so delicious and produce well until a good hard frost. They tend to be green shouldered, but I don't really care. They blanche very easily and make a wonderful salsa.

A great little tomato. Very early producing and keeps on giving throughout the season. Nice, wholesome flavor.

These have been extremely cold hardy here and have come back after being seriously frost damaged to produce tasty 4 to 5 oz fruits on a large vine. Good for short season climates.

I grew Stupice in the Seattle area. It is a great cool weather tomato. It was an early ripener and all except the very bottom fruits have been outrageously delicious. I recommend this plant highly in this area. It is an attractive potato leaf that grows to about 7 ft. The fruits are not large but flavorful.

My friend in Montana is Slovak and he swears by the flavor of Stupice. Stupice is an heirloom from Slovakia.

They are growing fine here in Alaska and so far this year ( August 6 ) they are my only ones that have ripened. I would rate the taste - here in Alaska - as average. I think that it is because there is so much rain in Juneau. I am getting a high percentage of splits. At least 50%. To me anyway they are too watery but in Montana they taste better?? More sun, less water maybe?

UPDATE as of August 24.
The STUPICE are still producing fine but strangely there has been a great improvement in taste. It almost is like a new tomato. Same plants as before but the tomato flavor is super. Way above average now. What can I say? I have to alter my rating from neutral to positive.